Harmony
by rhapsodybree
Summary: A snapshot of the future told in 3 x 100 word parts. Penny, Sheldon, Harmony and 0.9. Now with more 100 word shots.
1. Christmas Eve

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.

* * *

Penny sat cross-legged on the floor. Her legs were clad in loose pants reaching to her shins. Her upper half was covered in a singlet that seemed to reveal more than it covered.

Her milk-swollen breasts threatened to spill over the low cut top and her swollen abdomen was resting in the cradle of her crossed legs.

Her thoughts weren't on herself as she talked animatedly to the toddler she was balancing before her. "Go to Daddy Harmony!" she encouraged.

The little girl – though not too little, tall for her age class – wobbled on her legs and toddled over uncertainly.

* * *

Sheldon Cooper stood at the other end of the room, his eye critically appraising the Christmas tree before him.

His thinking expression didn't change when something gripped his lower extremities. Looking down with mild interest, he saw a child tugging his pants. "Up!" declared young Cooper.

Sheldon reached down and long gangly arms cradled the one year old to his chest as he sought out its mother.

He found her seated on the floor.

Physics instantly calculated that her ability to rise with ease given her current state was impossible and he made his way over to offer his assistance.

* * *

The Christmas celebrations were in full swing at Omaha, Nebraska when Penny Cooper realised that her husband and daughter were both suspiciously absent.

A fruit mince pie in hand to satisfy her cravings, she went looking. A short search found them in the spare bedroom and revealed that Sheldon had succumbed to a rare event: sleeping in the afternoon.

Tears pooled in the hormonal woman's eyes. Sheldon sleeping in his typical rigid pose, Harmony lay sprawled across her father's chest in slumber, firmly held between his chest and phalanges.

Penny eased the door shut softly once again and slipped away.

* * *

_Next chapter: _Christmas.


	2. Christmas

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.

**Author's Note: **The muse struck once again, and so I bring forth some more 100 word one shots that follow on from Chapter 1.

* * *

Harmony Marie Cooper crawled out of the cot on Christmas morning and ran the short distance to her parents' bed. "Ismas! Ezzies! Up!" she declared in a loud voice, jumping up and down.

"Who taught her about presents?" groaned Penny, struggling to open her eyes.

"Some people argue that the desire to receive gifts is innate," replied the immediately awake Sheldon, taking possession of the toddler and keeping her away from her expecting mother.

Penny snorted and the scientist amended his original statement. "It could also have been your brother's conversation with our daughter yesterday."

"I'm going to kill him."

* * *

Penny stumbled into the family room semi-awake twenty minutes later, pushing wet hair back.

"Penny!" cried her mother, hugging her very pregnant daughter. "You're late for present time!"

Penny smiled apologetically and sought out an available chair. Her family wasn't much help.

_For crying out loud. _

Sheldon was seated on the floor, their daughter standing in the cradle of his legs. He held her back to avoid the chaos that was her family at Christmas.

His eyes found hers.

He nodded to the chair he was leaning against and she thankfully eased into the cushion as her father's voice boomed.

* * *

The overtired Harmony sat on Penny's hip waiting for a bottle.

Taking a seat on the couch and watching "The Grinch" with her nieces, she fed her daughter.

Baby Cooper was sprawled against her mother's side when Sheldon arrived muttering. "I see no purpose in throwing yourself at another in the name of a 'game'."

He saw the Grinch's wide grin on television. "And that is not anatomically possible."

He saw Penny next. "You went earlier than schedule."

"Harmony was hungry," shrugged Penny.

"But it is my task to feed her," protested the offended genius.

"You can put her down."

* * *

Pushing up from the couch with some effort after her husband left cradling their daughter, Penny made for the kitchen where her mother was cooking up a storm.

Washing the bottle, her unborn child was also kicking up a storm. "Are you okay?"

"Mm?" asked Penny absentmindedly, racking the plastic. "I'm okay. Just more than ready to give birth, that's all."

"Come on Pen," boomed her father, interrupting the comfortable silence. "It's baseball time."

Penny rolled her eyes, gesturing to her expanded girth. "Yeah, sure Dad."

Her father looked at her as if for the first time. "Oh I see."


	3. On the Move

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.

**Author's Note: **But wait, there's more!

* * *

Driving home – in the actual driver's seat of course, Sheldon still uncertified, and with a desire to keep her body in one piece – the pains began.

As her husband fiddled with the cap of Harmony's bottle, she gripped the steering wheel tightly.

Their daughter happily sucking on her drink, Sheldon turned to his wife, noticing the tightened muscles. "You are looking awfully tense."

"You think?" she gritted out.

The moment Penny pulled up in front of the apartment building and killed the engine she had a sleeping daughter, a freaked out husband and baby Cooper No 2 on the way.

* * *

As Penny Cooper was wheeled through double doors at the hospital and Sheldon dashed after, Leonard pocketed his car keys and hoisted his goddaughter further up his hip.

Howard and Raj dashed in behind him moments later. "I can't believe Sheldon's married with a kid, with another on the way, and we're still bachelors," bemoaned Leonard as he took a seat, Harmony in his lap.

"But we all feel sorry for you don't we chicka dee?" sympathised Howard, chucking the grinning toddler's chin.

Young Cooper retaliated to the insult to her father by promptly throwing up on her adoptive uncle.

* * *

Decked out in scrubs, his large hands held up in the air at the risk of touching anything, Sheldon dashed toward the sterile room.

He bounced from foot to foot as he considered his gloved hands and the door before him. Beyond these doors was Penny in labour.

Deciding, he knocked his elbow on the glass pane. "Penny." Knock. "Penny." Knock. "Pen-"

"Just get in here Sheldon!" yelled Penny, her husband's name becoming a scream then moan of pain.

The genius startled forward at her demand, pushing through, but shuffled backward after for his last knock.

"-ny."

"Argh!" screamed Penny.

* * *

With Howard bemoaning the loss of his purple pants and Leonard diving through the large bag searching for wet ones, Raj found himself balancing the toddler on his knees.

In the months leading up to the birth of this girl, Raj had had high hopes that his inability to speak with females unless drunk would not translate onto Sheldon's offspring.

But alas, from the moment Harmony Marie Cooper had arrived, he'd been tongue tied.

He now prided himself on teaching the youngster Morse code from an early age, as the only way he could communicate with her was through blinks.

* * *

Sheldon's face distorted as Penny squeezed his hand. "Some women endure childbirth silently," he said seriously as he rode out another contraction with her.

"I told you this fifteen months ago. And I'm going to tell you agaiiinnn..." gritted out Penny, tapering off in pain. "I don't care about those miraculous women. I just want this basketball out of the pin."

"Now Penny, it's not..." began Sheldon before he swallowed his words as Penny set devil eyes on him.

"Your. Fault. Shut. Up."

The meaning was clear and Sheldon was surprised to find himself sounding like his father. "Yes dear."

* * *

When the doors opened for the nth time that night, Leonard was the only person awake to cast a tired glance there.

Harmony was sprawled across his lap, thumb in her mouth as she slept. She hadn't taken well to the absence of her parents as she fought slumber, but eventually sleep had won out.

He spared a glance toward his fellow waiters. Howard was wearing scrubs, his mouth open as he slept, Raj's head comfortably resting on his shoulder.

He snorted as he rearranged the blanket on the toddler, before placing a hand on Harmony's back and dozing off.

* * *

"Breathe Penny," Sheldon instructed imperiously.

"Don't tell me what to do!" she snapped.

"You need to keep breathing madam," ordered the midwife.

"Yes ma'am," replied Penny obediently.

"I don't understand your two different responses to the same instruction," said a confused Sheldon.

"She's bringing our kid into the world," gritted out Penny, pulling at Sheldon's shirt. "It's your job to hold my hand."

"You're doing a good job." Was that right?

He'd been reading about the correct method on coaxing a woman through childbirth, but appeared to be fumbling once again.

Penny's face softened for a moment. "You're getting there."

* * *

Baby boy Cooper was resting in his mother's arms just under five hours later.

Sheldon's long fingers were shaking slightly as he eased the blanket back on their latest red-faced squalling creation before looking to his exhausted wife.

The never wavering intense gaze had made her uncomfortable before, but now as he turned his eyes to her, Penny just took it as part of him and smiled.

The baby fed and sleeping, Penny's tired eyes looked at Sheldon's own bagged ones. "What do we name him?"

"Might I refer back to my perfectly good naming chart?" the genius proposed.

"No."

* * *

It was a short discussion.

"We're not naming our son Stanley, Newton or any other hare brained scientist or comic creator," said Penny firmly.

Sheldon looked ready to protest, before his face lit up and Penny could almost see a physical lightbulb in the air next to his head. "What about number three? That one wasn't."

Penny's confused mind sought to remember which one number three was then nodded her head slowly.

"Shall we let in the masses?" asked the delighted father.

"Hang on," protested Penny. "I need to make sure I look okay."

"You look beautiful," said Sheldon truthfully.

* * *

It was a ragtag crew that stumbled into the room.

Leonard's glasses weren't sitting quite right, Howard had on ill-fitting hospital pants and Raj was averting his eyes, refusing to look at the bed.

Harmony was waiting for no one, dashing across the room before scrambling up the bed – scrambling a skill the determined baby had learnt before crawling or walking.

"Baby?" the blonde haired toddler queried, demanding to know with a face much like her father.

"Daddy has him," said Penny softly, nodding toward where her tall husband turned with a flourish to make his announcement.

"Mackinley Hamish Cooper!"

* * *

_Next Chapter_: Happy New Year.


	4. New Years Eve

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.

**Author's Note: **But wait, there's more!

* * *

As he held the days out baby just home from hospital in his arms, Howard Wolowitz thought that having a baby with Bernadette didn't look like such a frightening prospect.

Maybe that should be his New Year's resolution.

"After all," he said in a decidedly gooey tone. "You're so cute aren't you? And imagine all the phone numbers I'll be able to get."

Mackinley Cooper threw up.

Unable to hide his disgust, Howard looked up frantically.

Sheldon reached for his son. "It is always nice to know that one's offspring has good taste." His face split with his smile.

"Bazinga!"

* * *

Too depressed to think of a resolution for himself as midnight beckoned, Leonard Hofstadter looked to where his best friend and ex-girlfriend were standing in the kitchen.

Sheldon was holding the wriggling Harmony as Penny placed a Batman bandaid over the toddler's scratched knee.

She then expressively declared the pain gone and kissed her daughter on the forehead. His heart clenched as she then clasped the elbows Sheldon – her husband! – and reached up to kiss him too.

Harmony pulled her parents apart in order to hug them both and Leonard turned away in pain.

That was his resolution: Move on.

* * *

Rajesh Koothrappali stood at the table set up by the window in the Cooper family apartment. At an appropriate height, with no possible way for little fingers to reach and obtain something not permitted, was the alcohol.

Staring at the punch, Raj's brow creased as he battled with the liquid. "You will not get the better of me," he ordered. "I will not need you to speak with the ladies."

"Hey Raj," said Penny, the pretty blonde stepping up beside him. "Everything okay?"

He promptly scooped alcohol into his cup and sculled it.

Next year, he told himself. Next year.

* * *

When asked about his New Year resolutions, Sheldon Cooper scoffed at the prospect. "I fail to see how promises made during an occasion of much alcohol-imbibing can influence your behaviour for a year."

He eased forward in his seat. "In fact, research shows that..."

Leonard interrupted hastily. "We were just wondering if you had any resolutions. You know like do better at work et cetera."

Sheldon scoffed. "I am already working at my optimal levels in the workplace Leonard."

"What about your family?"

"What about them?" queried Sheldon. "I don't need a resolution. I am already producing my best efforts."

* * *

Penny sat, legs folded under her body comfortably, Mac nursing at her breast. He was covered by a blanket so that the various males in the room could actually look at her.

"You know what my New Year's resolution is?" she declared loudly. "I want to try and get back into acting."

"But what about your b... e... a... u-tiful family?" asked a tipsy Raj.

Sheldon answered first. "I fail to see how having two children to care for directly correlates to loss of opportunities to show one's talent."

The genius winked to all present. "I'm doing my husbandly duty."

* * *

Standing back against the couch, Harmony bounced on and off the leather and identified the people she could hear talking. There was Mummy who now had a lap for her to sit in again, staring Uncle Raj, funny Uncle Howard who couldn't hold her properly and strong hugging Uncle Leonard. Her brother was there too, but he was kind of boring.

Her eyes looked up at the toy she could see high up on the shelves. Brow furrowed, she calculated the distance, her body's capabilities and declared it possible.

Moving, she stopped when she heard a voice. "Daughter," admonished Sheldon.

* * *

As the clock struck twelve and the ball dropped there was much celebration, hugging and kissing in the lounge room: Raj and Howard knocked heads together as they attempted a hug and Penny threw her arms around Leonard happily whilst Sheldon stood ramrod straight, one hand outright, the other holding a sanitising gel as he prepared to shake the hand of one and all and welcome in the new year in a dignified manner. Harmony was sprawled across the couch, her small body under a blanket, sound asleep.

And baby boy Cooper? He pooped, shifted slightly and slept on blissfully.

_

* * *

_

Finito.


End file.
